Category: Photography

Parts of me feels like the past year went by faster than ever, others feel like SO much happened and things moved slow. But I’m not here to recap the past year, yet.

Today I wanted to link up with Erin from Perfectly Port to share my 10 favorite photos of 2017! (I had hoped to share a house post today, but I decided if I waited just a few more days there would be a lot more to share.)

At first the idea of sharing my top 10 photos sounded like a super fun and super easy post idea… then I quickly realized just how hard it was going to be to only pick 10. I opted to narrow things down a bit and chose 10 photos from my Instagram account.

2017 has been the year for photo challenges. Valentines, spring, summer and fall have all been documented and that only leaves the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas. When I was invited to join Stephanie for a final photo challenge to wrap up the year, I couldn’t say no.

Because documenting the holidays with photos is my favorite.

Starting December 1st we are inviting you to join us for a full month of Christmas moments.

I think out of all of the photo challenges a person could try to accomplish, this one has to be the easiest. With holiday magic all around a person doesn’t have to look very hard to be inspired. So, if you have wanted to attempt completing one but haven’t went for it, might I recommend trying this one?

Don’t forget a few of my favorite photo challenge tips too.

* Set reminders or write the prompts down in a planner.* Take your photos ahead of time and utilize IG drafts.* If you miss a day make it up by posting two photos the next or skip it and just keep going.

So many families are good about taking family photos every single year, sadly we are not one of them. It’s not that I don’t want the photos, (Because if you really know me, you should know how much I LOVE photos.) but it has been more of a budget/cost thing. The least thing I have wanted to do is to spend “big bucks” for a limited amount of photos, that I may not love, when I have a perfectly capable camera in my very own hands.

Usually every other year I realize the photos really need updated, suck it up and book an appointment. But this year we chose to go another route. Instead of paying someone to take photos for us, we decided to trade with a friend. I’d take pictures of her family, she’d take them of mine. Worst case scenario they don’t turn out and neither of us lose a thing.

We picked a day, picked outfits and met on a Sunday for family photo shoots. I took the photos of mine that I could, she did hers and we took photos for the other person as well. It was perfection. We both got some really great shots and it only cost our time.

One of my favorite ways to document our day-to-day life has been by linking up for ‘The Daily Dime’ once a month. The idea is simple: pick a day, take 10 photos, share them in a post. Easy enough right?

Well, I would partially say yes and partially say no. Taking 10 photos throughout the day can be a bit of a challenge. Which honestly is just another reason I love these posts. They encourage me to capture more of life’s everyday moments and share more of the “boring” stuff that doesn’t always make it to the blog.

I am so excited to finally be sharing this post with you. I’ve been wanting to take the girls on a wall crawl for months now, maybe even closer to a year. But we had one huge problem, too much sun. Most of the murals in Joplin all face the south. That makes photos in front of them on a sunny or overcast day nearly impossible. My blue-eyed babies don’t enjoy standing in the heat with their squinty eyes and wrinkled noses. I knew if we were ever going to do a wall crawl it would have to be on a summer evening.

While Russ was on a business trip to New York, the girls and I finally made my wall crawl dreams come true. I’m not gonna lie, it was a lot of work. So many trips in and out of the car, so many photos to sort through, and two little girls that were feeling done with the process by the end. Once we finished I rewarded them with milkshakes and all the “work” was quickly forgotten.

The moral of the story is this: If you have little ones and want to do a wall crawl, break it up over several days to keep your sanity. Remember to bring treats with you or plan to celebrate after… both would probably be best 😆 !

When I first started planning our photos I thought I would be lucky if we managed to find 10 murals. I was pleasantly surprised to discover we probably could’ve shared closer to 20. I guess I never realized just how many there are. The vast majority of them can be found in the downtown area, all within an approximate 1 mile radius.

This is a sponsored post in partnership with Picture Keeper and BraVoMark. All opinions are mine.

Two weeks from today we head back to school… which leaves me feeling #alloftheemotions . We’re starting our 5th year of home school, WOW doesn’t seem to summarize exactly how shocked I feel over that, and I will be taking our 6th year of back to school photos.

The past 6 years of photos hold some very precious memories. Memories that have all taken place at this house, the home where so many of their childhood firsts happened. As we get ready to head back to school one last time in this house, I may be a teensy bit more sentimental than usual.

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Hello Friends!

I'm Beth. Wife to Russ & Stay at home turned homeschool mom to Marissa & Emily. I love Jesus, my time at the gym and can usually be found behind the lens of my camera. Our life isn't perfect, but it's ours and I wouldn't trade it for the world. We are so glad that you are here and hope you'll stick around.